A citizen oversight panel could learn today whether it may compel Atlanta police officers to appear to answer investigators’ questions. The Atlanta Citizen Review Board, at the instigation of member Rod Edmond, may file suit to force officers to cooperate if it does not get subpoena power. Maybe even if it does. UPDATE: On a 13-1 vote, the City Council today granted the board subpoena power and require the police chief to discipline officers who won’t cooperate with it.

Atlanta’s BeltLine redevelopment project may be about to short an affordable housing fund by more than $9 million, a citizen oversight group says. And, members of the citizen advisory committee contend, the BeltLine leadership isn’t sharing information early or often enough for them to know how well the $2.8 billion endeavor is proceeding.

Should Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington discipline officers who won’t cooperate with a citizen oversight board? We may find out next week, when board members sit down to hash things out with Pennington and Mayor Shirley Franklin.

By JIM WALLS Atlanta police are breaking the law that requires them to turn over files to a citizen oversight board that investigates complaints against officers, one of the law’s chief sponsors says. Police – and Mayor Shirley Franklin’s chief of staff – counter that they’re actually upholding state law protecting open investigative files by […]